Way of the Hundred Fists: A punch that deals 140% of weapon damage. The second strike out of every three instead consists of seven punches for 20% of weapon damage each, which are spread out over a small cone. Generates 6 Spirit.
Way of the Hundred Fists breaks the pattern of ‘every third strike’ established by the other Monk Primary Skills by instead having a differing effect on the second strike out of every three. Thanks to the light damage of the seven middle punches, the damage per click (or per strike/activation) is essentially the same, given that armor and other such things take out a percentage of incoming damage. While probably the most visually interesting of the Monk Primary Skills, and noteworthy for having a higher base damage, it’s got no real side effect and so doesn’t really stand out at all until it has a few runes under its belt.
Hands of Lightning: A punch that deals 140% of weapon damage. The second strike out of every three instead consists of ten punches for 20% of weapon damage each, which are spread out over a small cone. Generates 6 Spirit.
This rune is very odd, as while it enhances one of the three strikes in the set that make Way of the Hundred Fists, unlike the runes for the other Monk primaries it essentially only improves its damage. The added strikes do interesting things to the small cone, but that cone is so tiny that it’s hard to get a concrete difference other than that you’re dealing more damage. Still, it’s better than no rune in this case, and more damage kills monsters faster.
Blazing Fists: A punch that deals 140% of weapon damage. The second strike out of every three instead consists of seven punches for 20% of weapon damage each, which are spread out over a small cone. When you score a critical hit with Blazing Fists, your attack and movement speed increase by 5% for the next 5 seconds. This effect stacks up to 3 times, to a maximum of a 15% boost to movement and attack speed. Genreates 6 Spirit.
Blazing Fists takes advantage of the fact that a set of three strikes with Way of the Hundred Fists is actually nine attacks, using the improved chance of scoring a critical hit somewhere in there to increase the speed you function at- which increases the frequency of your critical hits, which... yeah. It’s a nice loop, and since the damage on Way of the Hundred Fists is better than the other Monk Primary Skills, it can be very fun to use.
Fists of Fury: A punch that deals 140% of weapon damage and an additional 10% of weapon damage as Holy damage every second for 5 seconds. The first strike out of every three begins with a short forward dash. The second strike out of every three instead consists of seven punches for 20% of weapon damage each, which are spread out over a small cone, but do not separately inflict the Holy damage. Generates 6 Spirit.
This curious permutation of Way of the Hundred fists is great on delayed gratification- the added damage is quite nice- 50% weapon damage per ‘strike’ as Holy damage, which is rarely resisted at best. Given how fast you’re liable to be hitting things, this can result in a lot of extra damage pumped out, so it should be g iven a fair chance unless you really like one of the secondary effects available to Way of the Hundred Fists.
Spirited Salvo: A punch that deals 140% of weapon damage. The second strike out of every three instead consists of seven punches for 20% of weapon damage each, which are spread out over a small cone. Generates 6 Spirit. 15% of the time you will generate an additional 15 Spirit.
Curiously, this is the one Primary Skill Spirit-generating rune -not- tied to critical hits. It can be assumed that this is because the small barrage of hits that is the second attack of Way of the Hundred Fists messes with the critical hit frequency, but a flat 15% chance isn’t terrible by any means. It still isn’t nearly as good as Fists of Thunder- Quickening, though, so there’s very little reason to ever use this rune.
Windforce Flurry: A punch that deals 140% of weapon damage. The second strike out of every three instead consists of seven punches for 20% of weapon damage each, which are spread out over a small cone. Every third strike generates a wave of wind that deals 250% weapon damage as Physical damage to enemies straight ahead of you. Generates 6 Spirit.
Probably the most powerful alteration to Way of the Hundred Fists, Windforce Flurry thankfully lacks a knockback component, which would be more expectable with its name. Instead, it simply amplifies your damage quite nicely, and makes Way of the Hundred Fists very usable in mass-combat situations. Perhaps not as great as Crippling Wave, but better than could be anticipated by the performance of the skill pre-Windforce Flurry. Definitely a rune to look at.
